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Shadows within Shadows
---- The day was still. Like a calm before a hurricane. It was only a few days after Aine and Irminsul's.... experiment. They agreed to make Arcana, as the organization to stabilize the uneasy alliance between Aeternum's mages. Irminsul started his construction of the headquarters, and Aine was overseeing as she was the main leader. Not far behind was Aine's shadow. Edward walked silently through the place, feet making no sound and not hitting anything. He had his hands in pockets of his pants and searched for Aine. "She did mention something about overseeing..." He looked around and noticed how the workers didn't even notice him. Hastily, by instinct, Edward entered a nearby room. "Come on, we need this place finished before Lady Aine and the Great Pillar get mad." Said one of the workers. Another worker was appalling runes placing them all over the headquarters. These runes were a branch of the Magical Art Enchantment. Acting as wards preventing unauthorized personnel; from being there is the purpose for these runes. These runes placed do different things. Some cause damage to the target or paralyze. Some even seal the Magic Power within an intruder Mage. The room that Edwards was in, already had runes placed on it. Said assassin stopped abruptly and looked around for the cause of such reaction. "Hm?" His body had been paralyzed completely now. "Oh hey...someone got me." Edward chuckled to himself and summoned his shadow to analyze his body. "How, though?" After some minutes of pondering over its master, the shadow moved and hovered over Edward's right forearm. Edward frowned and induced his shadow to raise the sleeve of his shirt. As it did so, he could clearly see some strange markings on it. Runes. "Hmmmmm, must be that old dude's working...uh, I can't find Aine like this." Edward muttered and forgot that he couldn't move his head. "Uh, oh. Um, hey! Hello!" He tried to call for one of the workers. "How the hell do I dispel this?" A worker heard his voice and then opened the door. "Someone intruding before even a building is finished?! Oh, he will blast us to the next kingdom for this. Let me see if I can dispel the runes and get you the hell out of here." For over an hour the worker using his Magic tried to dispel the runes. The Magic was infused with Irminsul's and no one in Aeternum not even Aine had greater strength of Magic Power or understanding of the craft. Not surprising the minimal power of your garden-variety mage couldn't runes of such level. " I can't dispel them, Irminsul's power is too massive. I'll have to go get him..." Walking into the open door was Irminsul himself. His overpowering Magic knocked out the worker, but only greatly altered Edward as his Magic was strong too, just not as strong as Irminsul's. "Hmm, Edward Hartmann of the former Elementals, why are you here?" Irminsul looked over his body and saw his runes on his skin. "Caught in my Runic Magic, losing your touch, little Ed?" "Eeeeh, um, I suppose so..." Edward mused once again, looking to the side almost in discomfort. He didn't like how easy the offering was given, but it couldn't hurt to try. Unless...he was killed. "I could try, I guess." He looked down at the runes as if waiting for them to be removed so he could use his magic. "That's alright." Edward responded at the worker who had tried his best at dispelling it. "No worries, I guess?" Then, he heard a voice from behind him and it definitely wasn't the worker. "Heh, why else? Aine." Edward mused at Irminsul's insult. "Whatever touch I had, I guess." "You see little Eddy." Irminsul said in a mocking tone. "My runes here if you come into close proximity to them with specific thoughts they attach to you. Right now, you have two sets of runes. One is to paralyze the intruder if they know they aren't allowed here. The second set is a seal on your Magic. It responds to thoughts of taking something, not yours, which I guess is Aine. It will work if you leave this place. Aside from long term exposure of the Moon Drip, nothing can break that seal. Why should I remove them, we aren't allies and I think the authorities will say this is breaking and entering as the Elementals are defunct. Give me a reason a lazy haft-ass assassin shouldn't take an early retirement?" "Bleh." Edward stuck his tongue at the nickname. "I don't need magic lessons on things I know. Thanks, I guess." He sighed, still capable of moving his mouth. "Fine, just remove them then. I can find Aine later on..." He rolled his eyes at the remarks. "I'm sure Aine won't find any trouble in just letting me go now, I guess. You don't have any reason to leave me here." Irminsul pointed his staff at Edward's face. "You have no authority over me, and don't think Aine would agree with you over me. This is my building, not hers. Legally I can kill you and it's self-defense despite being far stronger. Maybe I should just leave you here experimenting on someone of your level would be rewarding." Irminsul puzzled a thought. "If you promise to leave Aine alone, I'll free you." "Heh, are you already senile?" Edward blurted out. "Self-defense is a case of someone attacking you." He looked around, though his head didn't move. "Leaving Ai alone? Um, sure, I suppose. Not getting to her in your territory." He tried to nod but forgot his movements were restricted and grunted in annoyance. "Perception is everything. To the authorities, you're an intruder and if I say blast you with a magic blast and you'll be reduced to ashes. What's to say how you were before you were reduced to ashes. However I'm not cold, I'll give you a choice. I always wanted to study your unique method of Shadow Magic. Let me test your skill, and prove satisfactory I'll remove the runes. I'll even let you have a free pass here for Aine, sounds like a good deal to me." "Eeeeh, um, I suppose so..." Edward mused once again, looking to the side almost in discomfort. He didn't like how easy the offering was given, but it couldn't hurt to try. Unless...he was killed. "I could try, I guess." He looked down at the runes as if waiting for them to be removed so he could use his magic. "Irminsul made many hand gestures. In seconds more runes appeared around the other sets. Then they were gone. "Don't get over confident. I didn't dispel the runes, I just placed more to counteract the other's effects. Try to run, and they will instantly reactivate. I had built a training ground as a requirement for Arcana. It's massive and is an altered space so we can cut loose completely. Shall we move on, you should be able to move now. The training ground is the next building over." "Yeah yeah, whatever," Edward muttered as Irminsul placed more runes. "Okay then." Edward agreed as they just moved on to the building. They would quickly reach the battlegrounds which were supposed to house their fight. Not wanting to waste any time, Edward quickly summoned Venmorstus around his figure, further negating the sounds produced by his being. In the following instant, Edward dashed towards Irminsul with amazing speed, however, his figure melted as he ran along the ground, becoming shadows which stretched through it. These same shadows made several black weapons pop up and float towards Irminsul. "Shadow Will..." Edward muttered from nowhere, though his armor masked it. "Forge" The weapons popped from several spots, Edward's shadows having melded into the scenario, and came in a variety of forms. From swords to clubs, all of them going against Irminsul's figure at the same instant Edward disappeared into the ground. Daggers, swords, and scimitars slashed as guns and bows fired while clubs and hammers smashed. Irminsul analyzed the application of Edward's Shadow-Magic. "Rudimentary skills for you." Irminsul snapped his fingers and then the weapons stop just short of his person. "A simple Telekinesis spell and I stopped your attack. Edward, you want me to remove runes, not with these half-assed attempts you call attacks." Irminsul touched one shadow weapon and they all vanished. He used Dispel on the weapons. "Get it yet? It's not so much that I have far greater Magic Power than you. It's that I never stop researching Magic. Yes, I'm more powerful, but you're not weak yourself. With Magic the more you know, plus your innate Magic Power determines your power usually aside from your emotions. From the moment I saw you, I started analyzing your Magic Power, its magnitude, volume, even your own personal rate of Ethernano replenishing time which varies between mages." "In order to even hit me. You will have to use something so complex, that I can't just dispel it. Dispelling is breaking apart the magic energy in a spell. The more you know about the spell, the easier it is. Making weapons out shadows is too simple. It's easy to understand its mechanics." As Irminsul said that, the room changed. It looked like a desert with rocky hills all around it, there was even a sky. "I designed this training room with my Space-Time Magic. To create the ideal battle terrains. This is an attack." He used Telekinesis to bring down a meteorite. "Whatever you say, mutter, teach, to me, I really don't care." Edward sighed and said from nowhere once again. "I don't see how most of your colleagues don't get bored by thoooose." Edward hummed as the terrain changed once again and a shadow was cast over the two of them. "Ah, I see." He appeared from the ground and saw the rock descending through the air. "A meteor, huh." Shadows erupted from below his feet, sending him high into the air. Edward hummed a bit, shadows erupting from his entire body as they began to wrap around the descending rock. Doing a little more maneuvering, Edward quickly approached the meteorite's surface and landed on its side. "Now...let's see..." He tapped a bit at some spots, shadows of himself appearing all over the meteorite's surface, all of them doing the same as Edward. "Got it" He mused. Even more, shadows appeared from the copies, waiting nearby. "Since all of you found it...I just need to access the information and..." Edward muttered once again, all of his shadows and himself instantly entering attack mode. "Finishing Move:..." Edward smiled and instantly dashed through the body of the meteor by pushing his right hand forward, appearing on its other side while hundreds of silhouettes which had his figure attacked the meteor from all angles at the same instant. "Thousand Slayers" Swiftly, the entire meteorite began to deform in smaller parts of itself, in an asymmetric and exploding manner. It was stricken down to its core and quickly lost falling force, the parts being so many that they held almost no weight at all. Edward himself had disappeared within the small rubble, despite their size. As the clumps of rocks fell to the Earth, he thought of what Edward did. "Now, that was a better attack, Edward. Now, for my next one, you have gone into the shadows." Irminsul thought as Edward was the strongest user of Shadow Magic he ever fought. "If I follow into the shadows it might be dangerous. And until I know the specific mechanics of your entering and exiting the shadows, I can't Dispel it. However, I know that which devours shadows." Irminsul made countless hand movements. Runes appeared all over the land, for hundreds of miles. "Edward, if you can hear me, you might want to come out and attack. The Runes I placed are for summoning Darkness. While shadows are created from light, the Darkness devours them. So, as we speak the runes are taking all light within the spell radius which is for hundreds if not thousands of miles. Without shadows that are the cast off from light, you might not be able to leave them. You want to be trapped there forever?" This is, of course, assuming Irminsul's plan would work. However, his runes were infused with his Magic. It could even maybe make it hard, to get around the runes like a barrier blocking Edward from leaving his shadow realm. "Getting out? Okay then." Edward mused while delivering an attack to Irminsul's right side by using claws made out of shadows from his right hand. He had traveled through the shadows of the rubble and managed to sneak himself near Irminsul by sending his shadows across all directions. He divided his body so that his magical power didn't get concentrated in a single part, thus giving his presence away. His hand was centimeters away from Irminsul's body. Irminsul moved his left arm into Edward's attack. "Concealing your magic signature and sneak attacks are rudimentary skills. However, you turned those skills into a much more lethal way of attacking. Not all things that are complex are made of uniquely detailed components. Take your attack, for example, your claws are stuck into my left arm. So I don't need to make an elaborate spell. This will do, no shadows to run into this time. The light will annihilate everything in its path." He pointed his staff at Edward's face and add to the light coming from the tip of the staff. The Magic Power being released was several times greater, than a Jupiter Cannon Blast. The blast was about to go off. It could easily destroy a city, due to the explosion of such intensified Magic Power in one place. "Look, I really don't care." Edward rolled his skills, seemingly dissipating as soon as Irminsul blocked his attack and moved to counter-attack. It was another aspect of him that tried to attack Irminsul, seeing how they weren't destroyed after they attacked the meteorite, but merely hid. Edward himself had hidden here ever since the meteorite got destroyed. Inside the Shadow World, Edward was just below Irminsul, standing upside-down as stepping on Irminsul's feet. His various aspects moved through the realm, not giving off his true presence. He sighed, if he opened the portal to the normal world at any moment, the explosion would get to him. Some of his shadows moved close to him, drawing attention to themselves so he could pass unheard. Once the explosion was over and the light cleared off itself from the normal world, Edward wasted no time, he concentrated as he stood still below Irminsul. More shadows began to swim around his figure in the shadow realm. Three of his aspects surged behind Irminsul, each of them from a certain angle, making it where only one could be seen at a time. They quickly moved to attack Irminsul, one used a shadow whip and aimed it at Irminsul's head, another used a shadow axe and aimed for Irminsul's legs, and the last used its two hands to hit his back. Irminsul still not in pain, figured something was amiss and for the moment he lost all feeling in his left arm. "Shadows are mysterious." His aspect's attacks came within spitting distance and suddenly they were frozen still. "To be able to manipulate these things took some time to figure out. Edward, I will accept your power at least as better than the average mage." Irminsul using his blood as ink which made his Runic Magic even stronger started making more runes. But this time he wrote them on himself. He then used his Space-Time Magic and transported or to be more precise created a copy of himself in Edward's realm. Irminsul could have followed him there, but aside from knowing little about realms within spaces of shadows, he felt this was enough. He was channeling his Magic Power into the copy, for an attack. "Don't think I need my staff to do this, I can create blasts just as powerful. The staff is just for show." Irminsul fired a huge Magic Blast at the real Edward. "Knowing little about it and still trying to attack inside it...is that so?" Edward put his hands into the pockets of his armor as various aspects of him appeared once again between him and the copy of Irminsul. "I can't afford to lose focus." Three of them quickly enveloped the magic blast and made it disappear along with themselves, everything lost within the shadows. As the explosion was fragmented and lost, various places in the distance could be seen lighting up. More aspects appeared, swimming through the darkness as they waited for Edward's commands, all of them looking at Irminsul's copy quietly. "It's nearly done" Edward noted to himself as he looked at the copy, waiting for any action. The copy of Irminsul wasn't affected by the explosion, as he was for all intended purposes a physical illusion. "This is getting tiresome, you lurking in the shadows is useful and highly effective. However, I now understand enough of it, to do away with it and force you out into the real world." The copy started to fade away. He had channeled his Magic Power into the shadows hoping that with the copy linked to the shadows he could Dispel it and force Edward out. "Heeeeh, it was indeed getting boring~ But I had enough time to do what I wanted to do." Edward smirked as his body was forced out of the shadow realm but something was left behind. Something aside from the many aspects he had in that world. "This is Shadow Invite~" This spell took time to prepare, and Edward took advantage of the many aspects he had left over from his attack at the Meteor earlier, in order to stall Irminsul down. The spell worked by channeling a person's presence into a shadow made by Edward. In this case, Edward molded a shadow after Irminsul, and whatever happened to it would be carried over to the real body. While magical attacks weren't that effective in the shadow world, physical attacks still held some glory. "Have fun!" Edward shout once he was out of the ground, looking directly at Irminsul as the many shadows swam in the other realm. Three of them had survived and were already before the shadow of Irminsul, striking its stomach with their right hand with a claw attack, piercing through the shadow's torso. Irminsul threw up blood like over a pint. He did have three holes in his torso. However, he still retained his immense life force, and as he clutched his hand, Edward went crashing down into the rocky ground face first with tremendous Telekinetic Force holding him down. "Now that was mean, Edward." Irminsul couldn't handle too much more attacks like that. "(Thinking) I can't take many attacks like that in this state. I can't dispel it either as the link is complex and will take time to analyze, more than I have. I can't believe I'm forced to use that." Irminsul's Magic Power started to explosively increase. His beard was gone, his hair turned golden, and all his wrinkles were gone along with the holes in his body and his previous left arm injury. "Having the ability to be any age is useful." Irminsul had used Age, to return to his twenties. By altering his age, the link was interrupted even while it was trying to reconnect. "It might take few age shifts to destroy the link. For now, you can't move." Irminsul waved his hand and sent Edward flying into the sky and then sent his body crashing down again, into the ground. Irminsul had used his telekinesis to make the ground shaped like spears. "Ngh!" Edward grunted as he was first slammed against the ground. He gritted his teeth as Irminsul lifted him up once again. "Then..." He opened a shadow portal just before the spears and instantly passed through it, resurging in another part of the terrain. He commanded one of the aspects to start working on re-strengthening the link while the others merely attacked it. "Indeed, but as long as you move me down...I can do that." Edward smirked once again. The shadows in the realm simply striked at the aspect of Irminsul's legs and arms, dealing various gashes through it. One of them, per Edward's command, worked on remodeling the Shadow to mirror the specific age Irminsul would change to. In fact, one of the links that remained allowed for the pain to be felt by the target. "With continuous strikes like that, not sure how much you can keep up either. Plus-" Edward's body was tight, but he could still use magic. "Shadow Forge-" Many weapons appeared once again in mid-air, weapons of all kinds. "Shadow Will" They all flew towards Irminsul's body at varying angles, some disappeared in the ground and air itself, using shadow portals. But, what made all of them notable, was the fact that their forms and sizes changed by the second. One of the shadows in the realm took the responsibility of simply holding the aspect of Irminsul at bay, holding it with its legs and arms from behind in a tight embrace. The other shadow simply continued to attack it and the third managed to keep the link stable. More hits took their effect on Irminsul. "This is getting really annoying." He shifted his age again another five years. This time the link was even harder to reconnect. Eventually, the link wouldn't be able to reconnect and Edward would have to completely recast the spell. "Little Edward, this is getting us little to nowhere. You have your shadow realm to return to, but now I think I will seal it up. This time I will invoke Magic you have never seen." Irminsul had utilized Arcanism the Magic of Life and Death itself. "Now, I can mirror any event if it supported by Life and Death even its metaphorical or literal." Irminsul had mirrored the death of a portion of his life force to bring life to the wasteland. "Arcanism's First Act: Eden's Birth," a forest started to erupt from the ground. Trees, flowers, even fungus appeared. The vines and trees had something done to them from the land itself. They started to twist and turn toward Edward all of them. "This Arcanism Spell is far different than any Plant Magic Spell. You have used your Magic enough here to leave traces of it. So, I mirrored the death of some of my life force, into life and gave birth to this now growing forest. It will seem out you, for I used the Magic Power you left in the land as its nutrients. So run and hide, these plants grow on your Magic and can follow you into the shadows if you retreat there or if you run around here." The plants started to race toward all Edward. Edward just made sure two of the aspects worked on strengthening the link this time, as one wasn't enough to finish the job. All the while the other shadow kept attacking and cutting the aspect open. "Sure thing." Edward himself burst into a mass of shadows and ran into random directions, as the weapons just neared Irminsul's body, some having cut through several of the trees and the others having reappeared from the other realm. As they changed form every instant, they all slashed and attacked at Irminsul's body at once from varying angles. All the while, Edward's aspects focused on rekindling the link and one of them attacked it. Irminsul was getting torn apart, from both the attacks to his person and to his Shadow Self. "You think I have started to attempt to fight back?" Irminsul shifted his age between his twenties, thirties, and forties hoping to break the link. "This time I'll use some effort." Irminsul coughed up more blood, even his life force wasn't infinite. "Let the Heavens scream." Irminsul, using his Telekinesis, brought down countless smaller meteorites and then had the forest regrow. The plants once again reached out to take Edward, now ignoring his other aspects as now they could identify him. The meteorites were about to come down, Irminsul had created a small barrier of Telekinetic Force around his person to protect himself. Edward looked at the way the trees moved for some seconds and then jumped towards one of the slowest meteorites, though this one was the closest to the ground. The trees swiftly followed him. He analyzed the meteorite and ran to a certain spot of it. All the while, he made sure to command all of his aspects to focus on the link which was damaged due to Irminsul's magic. The trees hit the meteorite with immense force, Edward dodging at the last moment in order to not get caught in the way, landing on a part of the trees. The impact was enough to send the meteorite flying in another direction, making it hit two other meteorites. Most of the other meteorites simply hit the trees which grew around due to Edward's movements, stopping them from striking the ground as Edward continued to run around. As he did so, Edward created a mass of shadows. "Shadow Forge..." He molded it into a large, black spear which was then swiftly thrown towards the ground. However, it disappeared within a portal which had appeared and entered the Shadow Realm. "You've taken ME out of there, not my other shit." The spear lunged and hit a part of Aspect Irminsul's body, as Edward's shadows simply focused on the link. Hurt even more from his Shadow Self being hit. He shift his ages now from all years where he could walk to his old age, then returning to his twenties. This finally breaking the link completely. Irminsul stopped his attacks in their place. "I shouldn't do this, but I still need more information." Irminsul commanded the Battle-room to turn into another location. Instead of a rocky wasteland, it turned into a massive ocean. The tree and meteorites fell into the ocean. "Confused. A body of water this massive will not have shadows on the surface of it without something to block light. Of course, it gets dark as you go deeper, but so does the pressure gets stronger. So you can try to move into the shadows at the bottom. That is of course if the pressure doesn't crush you first." He used a telekinetic spell to make a title wave come crashing down over the falling Edward, while he was flying. Edward didn't get fazed by the terrain changing once again. "Is that so?" Edward looked at the shadow made by his own body since he was high in the sky. He also summoned various shadows around his body and connected them to said large shadow, making it swallow the tidal wave and send it to the shadow realm. "Shadow Beast" He muttered and summoned several Hawks out of shadows, commanding them to latch onto his back and fly high. "Is that all?" He used his new staff and shot out a Magic Blast. However, this blast was acting weird. It twisted and turned in odd locations. Irminsul used his Telekinesis to remote control it. Even if he went into the shadows, he understood enough to send it after Edward. The blast was behind Edward. "Don't even think of returning to your realm, I'll dispel it before you even try. This time you will take a hit." "I don't need to." Edward muttered and opened a shadow portal in front of himself just before the blast hit him. It sent it all the way into the shadow realm. "What you forget is that things get dispersed there." In fact, seeing it through his aspects, Edward noticed that the blast diverged into many other ones inside the other realm. "This is all part of my analysis of your Magic. Did you for once think it was odd that I allowed so many attacks on my person or to be absorbed? No, I doubt you cared or thought I was just a boastful old man. Well, maybe a little of the latter. But no, my strategy is this. Your Shadow Realm is now completely infused with Magic Power inside of it. More precisely MY Magic Power. Did you think that copy of me was completely gone? No, it infused my part of will into the shadows. It did all the studying of your shadows, without me being there. So now if you attempt to bring anything into the shadows. Either yourself or something else, my Magic will close the portals. Of course, it can't undo already created shadows or from creating more. So now you have to deal with me. Let's drop the current. Dispel." Irminsul dispelled the shadow hawks that were holding him up. He then sent another Magic Blast to Edward. This time it separated into hundreds of smaller ones. Each moving closing in on the falling Edward. "Your talented which is something I don't say often to even equally powerful mages. But this is the end." "Hmmmmmm. Okay." Edward answered, not bothering with Irminsul's words. "It just means I have to do that trick of earlier." He summoned the Hawks once again but this time he made it where they changed into other animals with every other second. Flying ones. "You did pour your magic into the realm, but not into my portals...which you still don't know how they properly work, as only I use them." He said. Edward instantly passing through a portal and reappearing near Irminsul with a myriad of weapons which changed by every second. He moved and commanded all the weapons and animals to attack Irminsul. Irminsul vanished. All the attacks collided with each other. He then reappeared. "The manipulation of the space-time continuum. You will never lay another attack on me. I can't believe I miscalculated on your portals, but something can be said for human error. It matters not what you do now it's over. Runes appeared all over Edwards again. Have you already forgotten, my runes are written on your body. At anytime I can reactivate them and completely seal your Magic Power. So I declare this battle over, it's not a loss or a win or even a draw. It will not have happened the moment we leave the Battle-room. For all wounds and effects are undone by the magic I created here, once you leave. It's a training ground after all, and you still have an ace or two up your sleeve and I have yet to use half of my power. I don't wish to be torn asunder or having to erase you from this world." Irminsul started to return to his old age. "I will not interfere with your pursuit Aine. That is, of course, don't continue. That is unless of course, you want me to seal your power and then you away." "Tch..." Edward grunted and stepped into the water, which became normal ground once again. The armor surrounding his body disappeared and got substituted by his normal attire. "Whatever you say, old man..." He moved to the outside of the room, gripping his neck a bit as the terrain's effects took over and removed any wound or stress he may have had. "Now, where's Aine..." Category:RP Category:Roleplay